RICK L. KNUTH is the keeper of the Banking and Finance Law Spotlight Site.

Rick's practice focuses on assisting institutional and private lenders and borrowers in asset-based loan transactions, real estate financing, accounts receivable and inventory-based financing. He has over 30 years experience in loan documentation, mortgage and trust deed foreclosures, loan participations, credit opinion letters, workouts, and insolvency proceedings of all kinds. He counsels banks large and small in all aspects of their commercial credit relationships.

Look for postings by the other attorneys in our Commercial Lending and Banking Practice Group.

The interest of tech firms in offering banking services has opened a familiar line of criticism from opponents of what has been a very successful type of bank charter. They say industrial banks like those allowed in Utah could enable both retailers like Walmart and tech giants like Amazon and Microsoft to control the banking system through what these critics assert are rampant conflicts of interest.

In a case decided January 14, 2016, the Utah Supreme Court ruled that a trustee's sale conducted by an unqualified trustee, was neither void nor voidable.

Samuel Adamson refinanced his home in 2007. Thereafter, the loan became owned by Bank of America, which appointed ReconTrust as successor trustee. Contrary to Utah Code Ann. Section 57-1-21, ReconTrust did not maintain a physical office within the state, but nonetheless recorded a Notice of Default and Election to Sell.

A recent hearing before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee examined why virtually no new banks have been organized since 2009. The hearing focused on why that mattered as well as why it is happening. The findings should be of interest to everyone concerned about our nation's economic policies.

Jones Waldo attorney George Sutton recently contributed a feature article to American Banker magazine regarding brokered deposits. George served as the Utah Commissioner of Financial Institutions from 1987 to 1993, where he was responsible for regulating all state chartered depository institutions and all consumer financial services providers in Utah. Since 1993, George has specialized in bank regulation. He assists clients with new bank and other regulatory applications, provides compliance reviews of products and services, and advises boards and management on regulation and corporate governance matters. Read the article in American Banker

One of my first solo trips to court as a baby lawyer was to get a default judgment on a promissory note. The judge reviewed the file of my meticulously prepared papers, looked up and asked for the original note, so that he could cancel it and put it in the court’s file.

Let’s get very clear about one thing: When you deposit money in a bank, your money doesn’t sit in the bank’s vault. It becomes the bank’s money upon deposit. The bank simply owes it back to you or to your order upon demand (a withdrawal or presentment of a check). You, in other words, have become the bank’s creditor for the amount of your deposits.

Simply put, a “hard money” loan is one made by an unconventional lender that specializes in short-term, high-cost loans, usually based not on the creditworthiness of the borrower, but on the value of the collateral securing the loan. Some hard money lenders are sizable concerns, but most are small firms or private investors, individuals with access to capital – their own or someone else’s –who are willing to make high-risk, high-profit loans.

Every so often, one sees a promissory note that is passed around more than the proverbial “Sweetheart of Sigma Chi,” one with a long chain of endorsements and allonges. Just as often, it seems, someone – whether deliberately or by inadvertence – has simply endorsed it without naming an assignee. This is an endorsement “in blank.”

As do all contracts, the loan guaranty must be supported by consideration. "Consideration" is the benefit or the detriment to one or both parties that separates an enforceable contract from a mere casual agreement. Consideration is often recited in contracts, using some nominal amount, such as "For the sum of Ten (10) Dollars, and other good and valuable consideration, the receipt and sufficiency of which is hereby acknowledged . . . ."